Route to hyperchaos in Rayleigh-Benard convection

Transition to hyperchaotic regimes in Rayleigh-Benard convection in a square periodicity cell is studied by three-dimensional numerical simulations. By fixing the Prandtl number at P=0.3 and varying the Rayleigh number as a control parameter, a bifurcation diagram is constructed where a route to hyperchaos involving quasiperiodic regimes with two and three incommensurate frequencies, multistability, chaotic intermittent attractors and a sequence of boundary and interior crises is shown. The three largest Lyapunov exponents exhibit a linear scaling with the Rayleigh number and are positive in the final hyperchaotic attractor. Thus, a route to weak turbulence is found

Inclusive Breakup Theory of Three-Body Halos

We present a recently developed theory for the inclusive breakup of three-fragment projectiles within a four-body spectator model \cite{CarPLB2017}, for the treatment of the elastic and inclusive non-elastic break up reactions involving weakly bound three-cluster nuclei in $A\,(a,b)\,X$ / $a = x_1 + x_2 + b$ collisions. The four-body theory is an extension of the three-body approaches developed in the 80's by Ichimura, Autern and Vincent (IAV) \cite{IAV1985}, Udagawa and Tamura (UT) \cite{UT1981} and Hussein and McVoy (HM) \cite{HM1985}. We expect that experimentalists shall be encouraged to search for more information about the $x_{1} + x_{2}$ system in the elastic breakup cross section and that also further developments and extensions of the surrogate method will be pursued, based on the inclusive non-elastic breakup part of the $b$ spectrum.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, Contribution to the Proceedings of Fusion17: "International Conference on Heavy-Ion Collisions at Near-Barrier Energies", 20-24 February 2017 Hobart, Tasmania, Australi

Cluster Structures with Machine Learning Support in Neutron Star M-R relations

Neutron stars (NS) are compact objects with strong gravitational fields, and a matter composition subject to extreme physical conditions. The properties of strongly interacting matter at ultra-high densities and temperatures impose a big challenge to our understanding and modelling tools. Some difficulties are critical, since one cannot reproduce such conditions in our laboratories or assess them purely from astronomical observations. The information we have about neutron star interiors are often extracted indirectly, e.g., from the star mass-radius relation. The mass and radius are global quantities and still have a significant uncertainty, which leads to great variability in studying the micro-physics of the neutron star interior. This leaves open many questions in nuclear astrophysics and the suitable equation of state (EoS) of NS. Recently, new observations appear to constrain the mass-radius and consequently has helped to close some open questions. In this work, utilizing modern machine learning techniques, we analyze the NS mass-radius (M-R) relationship for a set of EoS containing a variety of physical models. Our objective is to determine patterns through the M-R data analysis and develop tools to understand the EoS of neutron stars in forthcoming works.Comment: Contribution to the XLIV Brazilian Workshop on Nuclear Physics, Brazi

Nucleon-induced inelastic scattering with statistical strength functions and the ECIS direct reaction code

Modern theoretical descriptions of inelastic scattering make use of multi-step direct reaction approaches together with transition potentials obtained from sophisticated nuclear structure models. Here we demonstrate how the complexity of such calculations can be reduced to permit simpler ones, also using the ECIS code, but providing an almost equally precise alternative to a much more detailed calculation. We have studied the transition form factors within the random phase approximation (RPA), where these are obtained as linear combinations of particle–hole states. At moderate to high excitation energies, where interference effects tend to disappear, we have proposed an independent particle–hole formalism in which particle–hole states are spread in energy with an appropriate strength function obtained from the RPA. The effects of more complex modes, such as 2p–2h ones, are simulated with widths calculated in a semi-classical context. Here, we verify the validity of our approximations for pre-equilibrium proton-induced reactions on $$^{90}$$Zr target. Our calculations provide a good description of the reaction data and point toward a simplification of the description of nucleon-induced reactions based on averages of microscopic details of the projectile–target interaction

The role of nucleon knockout in pre-equilibrium reactions

Nucleon-induced pre-equilibrium reactions are predominantly direct reactions. At low incident energies, excitation of all but the lowest energy collective states can be well described in terms of one-step reactions that produce particle-hole pairs. As the incident energy increases, the probability of exciting a nucleon to the continuum rather than to a bound particle state also increases. These knockout nucleons can escape the nucleus or induce secondary collisions that create still other continuum or bound particle-hole pairs. We discuss their role in precompound nuclear reactions here

Statistical multi-step direct reaction models and the eikonal approximation

Nucleon-induced pre-equilibrium reactions are now recognized as consisting almost exclusively of direct reactions in which incident nucleons induce excita- tions over a wide range of energy in the target nuclei. At low energies, one step reactions dominate with more steps becoming important as the incident energy increases. The characterization of this multistep scattering process in terms of eikonal waves and an optical interaction potential could furnish an important simplification of the description of the collision process. In this preliminary work we perform an analysis of elastic angular distributions for different target nuclei and incident projectile energies, using the eikonal approximation and a tρ interaction potential

Towards a predictive HFB+QRPA framework for deformed nuclei: selected tools and technique

International audienceReliable predictions of the static and dynamic properties of a nucleus require a fully microscopic description of both ground and excited states of this complicated many-body quantum system. Predictive calculations are key to understanding such systems and are important ingredients for simulating stellar environments and for enabling a variety of contemporary nuclear applications. Challenges that theory has to address include accounting for nuclear deformation and the ability to describe medium-mass and heavy nuclei. Here, we perform a study of nuclear states in an Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov (HFB) and Quasiparticle Random Phase Approximation (QRPA) framework that utilizes an axially-symmetric deformed basis. We present some useful techniques for testing the consistency of such calculations and for interpreting the results